Wednesday, 27 April 2011

A reader sent me this link. It's a story about African immigration into Brooks, Alberta and how it is changing the town's cowboy image as if the residents of Brooks want that in the first place. The "cowboy image" is part of the Alberta's history and cultural heritage and it is a rich one at that. It is what makes Canadians a diverse people and Albertans unique within the cultural landscape of the nation. So I can't image the change African immigrantion is bringing to the town and province is being done by invitation but more so by fiat. And even if change is wanted I doubt anyone will look to Africa for guidance.

What African immigration does offer a host society likes Canada's, I have to say I am at a loss. Let's take Somali immigration as an example seeing how Canada hosts the largest population of ex-pat Somali's outside of Africa thanks to, well you know who to blame.

These are a people who come from a tribal society who didn't have a functioning alphabet until 1972; who at this time in their history have been unable to form any semblance of a functioning government, economy, or society prompting some to call Somalia a "failed state"; who practice polygamy, arranged marriages, and female gentile mutilation thanks to Islam's influences; who culturally indulge in an amphetamine called khat, a practice so problematic that it is at the root of Somalia's civil unrest while acting as an economic drain; who have brought this drug to Canada and want it decrriminalized; who have one of the highest secondary school drop out rates in Toronto's school system; and whose only real contribution to Canada are cab rides and representation in the global jihad movement. Canada would have been better off tying a giant albatross around her neck than allowing Somali immigration.

So to say Canada or Brooks, Alberta is enriched by Somali or any African culture should invoke laughter since they have more to learn from us then we from them. But this rant isn't the crux of this post. When you read the linked article a company name pops up: XL Foods Lakeside Packers Inc.

The immigrant puff piece was published in 2009 and undoubtedly co-written by XL Foods PR department if not the whole thing. I say this because XL Foods is the magnet drawing African immigrants into the town. But what has XL Foods been up to lately?

Why was XL Foods importing employees from Africa to work in Alberta while it had trained, idle employees in Saskatchewan it could utilize? Meanwhile it just laid-off workers in Calgary.

The initial article claims that immigrants are needed because well paying jobs in Alberta's oil fields are attracting away potential workers. This is nonsense since XL Foods would rather lock out laid-off workers then relocate them to Brooks. This looks like union busting to me and immigration is there to play its role. So where the hell is the Canadian Labour Congress?

Like its cowardly pathetic counterparts in the the environmental movement the CLC and the labour movement as a whole have been silent on immigration. This is curious since immigration is being used as a weapon to roll back wages, promote poor working conditions, and bust unions. Indeed, this is characteristic of North America's meat packing industry which has found itself reliant on immigration, legal or not, to provide an obsequious workforce to keep working conditions poor. This encourages a high turnover rate to ensure low wages and an upward flow of wealth. Since meat packing doesn't have the luxury to outsource its operations overseas to avoid labour laws and union influence it has to import the foreign workforce it wants to exploit.

If Canada's labour unions actually cared they'd pressure the government for more stringent immigration criteria and quotas so that it cannot be used as a weapon to attack the livelihood of Canadians. Instead we get silence but I have come to expect that. Canada's unions have to come to caring only about protecting their own turf and bargaining power. Shows of worker solidarity are just that: shows. Calls for good jobs are just words. When a union is broken down to its component members you realize that the only job they care about protecting is theirs and if immigration does not affect it they simply do not care who it hurts.

As rising home prices continue to outpace income growth, many young Canadians have decided to delay home ownership for another year, according to a poll released Thursday by Royal Bank of Canada.

RBC’s annual home ownership poll found that 55 per cent of respondents aged 18 to 34 said it made sense to delay a home purchase until next year. That’s 10 percentage points more than the national average for all age groups.

Meanwhile, about half of the young people in the survey who had already delved into home ownership said their mortgage was eating up too much of their income — suggesting their peers may have good reason to wait.

Immigration is the likely culprit. From the first linked article we read:

The national average home price rose 8.8 per cent year over year to a record $365,192 in February, although it was skewed upward by sales in the red hot Vancouver market where the average home price was $790,380.

Vancouver home prices have skyrocketed beyond affordability due to an influx of capital from Asia from primarily Chinese immigrants who bring it with them. Thornhill, Markham, and Richmond Hill also have considerable Asian immigrant populations, mostly Chinese but increasingly some south Asian as well.

We know mass immigration has had a measurable negative influence on Canadian incomes due to the over supply of labour. We also know demand for housing increases prices. It appears mass immigration has delivered a one-two knock out punch for young Canadians looking to buy homes and start families.

Too often we look at immigration from the immigrant's point of view and rarely consider what effects it has on the host population. If home ownership is part of the Canadian dream then mass immigration is denying this to many Canadians, at least for time if not indefinitely. An immigrant's pursuit of a better life in Canada is translating into a worse life for us who live here.

This has dire consequences for the birth rate. Historically Canada has relied on a natural growth rate to grow its population. And this growth rate depended on a birth rate above replacement level. Immigration was just a complement to it. The fact that Canada has to rely on immigration to fuel population growth is a recent phenomenon and this should be sounding alarms. If population growth is a desired goal then this should be pursued "in house", so to speak, since immigration is costly in comparison and the returns on recent waves of immigrants has been diminishing. Besides, tax dollars should be invested in Canadians not importing and supporting foreign born populations who end up disrupting Canadians' standard of living.

Affordable housing in hand with rising incomes are key ingredients to those desirous to start and support families. This, in turn, grows the population and strengthens the nation. But immigration has proven to be an assault on both and thus contributes to a stubbornly low birth rate. That being the case mass immigration is not the solution it is being made out to be but is indeed part of the problem.

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

In their latest weekly bulletin ImmigrationWatchCanada brings our attention to some very frank words from a Chinese national who, I assume, may also be a Canadian citizen.

As offensive as it may be I appreciate the honest words. For once we are told the open truth straight from the horses mouth about what is driving much Asian immigration to Canada untainted by the official multicultural propaganda that works to mask it. It also explains why Chinese immigrants are almost total failures when it comes to assimilating choosing instead to establish and live in functioning colonies within any host society they introduce themselves into. Sadly I feel the attitude on display is inveterate to the Chinese community which is often coupled with a smug sense of cultural superiority.

I'm sure they don't realize it but such behaviour contributes to social tensions and be the spark that ignites the powder keg. Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines have all witnessed anti-Chinese riots in their histories.

Vancouver had an anti-Asian riot in 1907 in response to the downward pressure on incomes Asian immigration into the city was effecting. More akin to human trafficking than immigration the government sought to discourage it by cutting into the smugglers' profits by enacting a head tax. This is why the United States had a head tax of its own. By doing so Ottawa was protecting the interests of working Canadian citizens and if the head tax was the way to do it then it was the right thing to do.

Recently anti-Chinese graffiti popped up in Vancouver and southern Ontario experienced a series of events called "nippertipping." Is it racism or have Asian immigrants, particularly Chinese immigrants, brought this negative attention upon themselves? If Asian immigrants have no desire to assimilate and see Canada as a country to be taken advantage of then why encourage it? Why tolerate it from anyone? You don't have much respect for a spouse who only loves you for your money.

These are the fruits of accepting too many immigrants from too few sources. Canada accepts too many immigrants for China and from Asia as a whole. This is an assimilation and loyalty problem so the solution would be to diminish any Asian influence in the country by reducing Asian immigration as a whole especially from China. This will encourage assimilation and they will become Canadians. It worked for the Japanese, it can work for the Chinese.

Sunday, 10 April 2011

It's election time again and that means the obligatory pandering to key block votes. In this case it's every party's favourite, the immigrant/ethnic block vote.

So apparently still, to this day, we are introducing immigrant cohorts into Canada's labour market ill-equipped to get a running start. It's been a problem for quite a while now and it looks like, finally, they're going to do something about it, fingers crossed.

The underemployed/unemployed skilled-immigrant-driving-a-cab phenomenon has provided many a journalist an opportunity to engage in moral exhibitionism while pretending to look like they care.

Yet time after time they fail to ask the most obvious question which is the one I ask in the post title, a question immigration reformers have asked before and will continue to ask for years to come but a question no one seems to be able to answer.

If immigrants need further skills training, tax payer subsidized of course, upon arrival in Canada then it says a lot about the effectiveness of the points system doesn't it? It also illustrates the inefficiency of the immigration system. If they need further skills training then obviously we are bringing in the wrong types of immigrants. If their skills are outdated then they shouldn't be coming here. If the skills they offer are in surplus then that's the fault of the immigration system and they still shouldn't have come here. If they are to be retrained for a job they were not imported to fill well there are plenty of unemployed and underemployed Canadians who can be trained for that job.

As for credential recognition ask yourself this: will you go to a doctor educated at an Indian university? I rest my case. I acknowledge that there are immigrants with credentials from western education systems. But the hurdles they face are set before them by Canada's professional colleges and organizations as a way to protect themselves from the negative economic impacts of mass immigration that the rest of us have to put up with. It's mostly out of professional courtesy and class loyalty that the political classes are not pressure them to get immigrants credentials recognized and get them working.

We've all heard it spoken enough that to repeat it invites a gag reflex; that immigrants come to Canada to contribute to it. As noble as this sounds I think this is hardly the case given human nature.

To contribute to implies an act of selflessness as if Canada and Canadians are in desperate need of outside help. I wouldn't describe Canada as a struggling nation nor Canadians as a struggling people so what exactly are we importing people to contribute to? Besides, if selfless contribution is at the heart of every immigrant to Canada then there are plenty on nations around the globe that could use their help more so than Canada. However, I do understand that it is more fulfilling to help a rich person who may also make you rich in the process.

To take advantage of implies a selfish act for personal gain and this to me is the more accurate motive bringing many people to Canada's shores. And I say that not to disparage those who come here but an acknowledgement of the human impulses that compels someone to act one way or another. Self-interest is stronger than altruism.

The linked Vdare article above makes that case. Though it is about the United States it is equally applied to Canada. And though it is about Chinese immigrants the behaviour outlined is not restricted to them.

The motives driving immigrants to Canada is important because it is an indication of what kind of citizens they will be and what Canada really means to them. If Canada is nothing more to them than a shopping mall, a job, an urban sprawl home, and a list of social benefits; health care, education, passport; then the desire to assimilate and be "more Canadian than Canadians" is elusive if at all present. This desire is further hindered by the current state of communications technology and affordable travel which allows one to live a satellite existence in Canada away from the home country. The ever growing foreign presence in Canada, colonies euphemistically referred to as "communities" or "enclaves", let's one live in Canada without actually leaving the homeland.

If contributing to Canada was the real intent then "being Canadian more than Canadians" would be desired but this is no longer the case like it once was. What we experience instead are incessant demands for accommodation which is the demand on the host culture to reshape itself and rethink itself so the introduced one doesn't have to. What we have are so-called "Canadians of convenience", a greater phenomenon than we care to accept.

The way to screen out the opportunists is to make it more difficult for them. This would require rewriting the citizenship laws denying birthright citizenship to anyone born on Canadian territory (or airspace as the case may be) to non-citizen parents. Another would be to rethink dual citizenship. Another would be to make residency requirements tougher, possibly with routine reviews to see if the requirements are being met and a penalty of forfeiture of citizenship if they are not. Another would be to close the loopholes one can exploit to dodge Canadian taxes while drawing an overseas income. These are just a few ideas.

Making it tougher for immigrants to come to Canada and become Canadian citizens would attract those who sincerely desire to come to Canada and repel those who see Canadian citizenship simply as the best deal in town. Something worked for is better appreciated than something not and by making immigrants work for their citizenship will make better citizens of them. Right now, this is something we don't do. Canada is more than just a land of benefits and entitlements.

Sunday, 3 April 2011

News out of India reports airline pilots were being awarded flying licenses by fraudulent means.

A government aviation official and three other people have been arrested in a widening investigation of corruption in awarding flying licenses to airline pilots, police said Saturday.

The four men were arrested Friday in New Delhi for their involvement in a flying school in the western Indian state of Rajasthan that had issued fake certificates of training flights flown by its students.

[...]

On Friday, aviation authorities canceled the licenses of commercial pilots for exaggerating their flying time while training.

Something to keep in mind for those who advocate the awarding of licenses to foreign trained professionals. There are reasons why Canada has the best educated taxi drivers in the world. These credentialed immigrants either don't meet the standards or we simply didn't need them in the first place.

More to the topic at hand Canada not only needs to scale back immigration but immigration from places like India. The prime reason: it is a haven for fraud.

Reporting about fraud in India is like talking about the weather here in Canada. It is so banal and obvious there really is no reason to talk about it aside from having nothing to talk about at all. For a country like India, and even China, fraud is to be expected and is pretty much what keeps the country going. Just recently a former Indian state official and three of the country's telecom companies are being charged for fraud by state authorities.

The fact that fraud is as Indian as a masala is something that should be of concern since Canada irrationally imports more people from that country than it warrants. By doing so we are exposing ourselves to that culture of deceit for gain.

The foremost problem is documentation fraud. How many Indian immigrants have acquired their credentials by fraudulent means? This is something that cannot easily be answered.

Marriage fraud is epidemic within the south Asian community. Sometimes it is an Indian national scamming an Indian with Canadian citizenship. Sometimes it is the other way around. Oftentimes it is a conspiracy with both parties to scam the immigration system.

The Bank of Montreal left itself vulnerable to fraud in its zeal to sell mortgages to immigrants. The mortgage fraud cost the bank $30 million dollars that was funneled to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and, of course, India. Called "Oklahomans", it should come to no surprise that south Asians are front and center in BMO's lawsuit. As far as I'm concerned the bank deserved what it got.

This is just a sampling. And this is saying nothing of the daily fraud the Liberal Party of Canada exposed the nation to when, for political reasons, it opened a mission in Chandigarh, Punjab; arguably the fraud capital of India.

What is primarily driving Indian immigration to the west is fashion, not necessarily a better life. Western citizenship is a sign of status (as is skin tone and complexion) and having it, or someone in the family who does, separates you from those on the lower rings of India's caste based society. Many Indian immigrants lived, well, damn good lives back in India, comparatively speaking, but their obsession with status drives them west and into obscurity. They are not here for a better life because they lived it back home. They are here for fashion and many will do anything, even cheat, to get it.

When you actually think about it there is no legitimate reason why Canada should be importing so many immigrants from India. I'm sure one can point to a few "success stories" but as a whole Indian immigration hasn't done much for the nation except deliver votes to the Liberal Party, a racket the Conservatives have made clear they are hellbent on breaking into, while crowding our cities and fueling urban sprawl. The reason why India, and China, top the list consistently is not based on Canada's need for them but on pure volume of applicants. India are China are the world's most populace nations and by consequence produce the most number of immigration applications to Canada, dwarfing everywhere else.

Canada can protect itself simply by scaling back immigration. Doing so will allow better scrutiny of each applicant. The current numbers driven, not quality driven, immigration system makes this difficult if not impossible.

In PartOne, we identify for the first time the members of the smuggling network believed to be behind the migrant ships. We expose how they operate and meet one of the suspects in a Bangkok prison.

In Part Two, we reveal the untold story of the Canadians whose names and photos appear in Thai police files in connection with the Sun Sea smuggling operation.

In Part Three, we introduce readers to the Canadian and Thai police officials trying to stop the smugglers.

And in PartFour we shine a light on the dark side of Canada’s anti-human smuggling program: the hundreds of migrants who have been rounded up and held in an overcrowded Thai prison.

Part One and Part Four have two parts to them that I linked to so make sure you don't miss that. So, in total there are about six article in the series.

Related, we have this sob story from the Globe and Mail. Apparently some of the smuggled Sri Lankan Tamil migrants who arrived on the MV Sun Sea are upset that they may be forced to sell their belongings and land holdings back home in Sri Lanka in order to pay off the smugglers. And somehow this is Canada's fault.

Lawyers for some of the MV Sun Sea migrants say federal immigration rules have forced their clients to sell their belongings and family land so they can pay off smugglers and be released from detention.

[...]

“It’s become this weird perversion of the law where we’re forcing people to pay these debts,” said Gabriel Chand, who represents some of the 492 Sri Lankan Tamils who arrived on the cargo ship last August. “They’re selling their land, their jewelry, so that they can pay these debts so they can be released from custody.”

[...]

He said the migrants he represents are not under the smugglers’ control. In fact, he said, they have no intention of paying the smugglers.

Two things to take note of.

The first is that these "refugees" have property and jewellery in their home country of Sri Lanka. I guess the "persecution" they were suffering from in Sri Lanka didn't stop them from amassing a considerable amount or wealth.

The second thing is that, according to their parasite lawyer, the migrants have no intention of paying the smugglers. I can see why he would say that. Paying the smugglers would amount to an admission of guilt to being party to a human smuggling operation which is a federal offense. I guess they intended to flip the bird to the smugglers once on Canadian soil and protected by Canadian law. But if forced to pay then how would they do it? From the article Jason Kenney has the following answer:

“They’re not paying that off while they’re in detention; they’re paying it off after they’re released from detention. They’re then in contact with the smuggling syndicate’s representative, usually in the Toronto area, and according to information I was given by the Australian Federal Police, they’re often pressed into criminal service in areas like credit-card fraud.”

This whole thing is worthy of David Mamet's pen. We have cheaters cheating cheaters. If not that then Canadians are the victims of fraud on several levels so that the migrants can keep their property at home while stealing from ours. Any way you look at it someone is getting screwed.

These "refugees" claim they are being persecuted and are forced to flee by any means necessary (bypassing numerous closer countries) all the way to Canada and once here, it turns out that they have land and other assets to sell in order to pay off their smugglers? Why didn't they simply sell the land and flee to, say, India or Vietnam or Laos or Cambodia or Indonesia, or ... (you get the idea)? Showing up at the border of these countries with some cash in hand will likely gain you an automatic entry as an economic immigrant. Instead, they paid smugglers to get them into Canada where, it would seem, they expected they wouldn't have to sell their land or jewelry in order to remain here. I am speculating, but it would seem that keeping their land in Sri Lanka would make perfect sense if they expected a quick and easy refugee claim and wanted a familiar place to relax and recharge during a Canadian winter.

We should be mindful of the alleged "Canadians" involved here. These are Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants who had to take a loyalty oath to Canada in order to obtain citizenship. It appears to these men the oath is just words on paper and not to be taken seriously. But with official multiculturalism and a ragging sense of entitlement that seems prerequisite to immigrate to Canada, should have we expected more from them? Odds are they are "refugee" claimants from Sri Lankan, like the vast majority of Sri Lankans in Canada, and this is their idea of repaying the country that gave them asylum. With such low expectations from our immigrants with a selection criteria of even lower standards these are the kind of people we attract: the best and the brightest.

The whole thing stinks and the frustrating part about is that there is little we can do about it thanks to the Singh decision. Rubbing salt in the wound is an asylum system that has been fashioned to pretty much keep people here. Aside from some cosmetic solutions there has been no discussion at seriously attacking the problem by addressing the root of it. As long as the Singh decision stands unchallenged Canada will remain a top destination for human smuggling. This makes Canada complicit to the crime while encouraging it. There are more efficient ways to address the needs of refugees. The Singh decision is not one of them.